Is this the golden age of point guards?
That was the question Bill Simmons posed to two-time MVP Steve Nash on his podcast last week. Nash thinks it is, but that wasn't the interesting part.
The interesting part was that T.J. McConnell was one of the first names Nash mentioned.
"The point guard in Philly, the kid from Arizona. He's a pure point guard, he makes their team better," Nash said around the 17-minute mark.
Nash mentioned McConnell when discussing the difference in today's point guards. There are the creators like James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, Isaiah Thomas and others, and then there are the traditional floor generals. McConnell fits that floor general description but there aren't many more current point guards who do. Over are the days when point guards looked to distribute first and score only if they had to.
McConnell -- who went undrafted in 2015 but has played more minutes than every drafted player that year except Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, Kristaps Porzingis, D'Angelo Russell and Myles Turner -- has gained the attention of some notable people this season. Back when LeBron James was complaining about the Cavs' lack of another distributor aside from himself and Irving, a report surfaced that Cleveland made a trade offer for McConnell.
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That had to be a nice little confidence boost for McConnell, knowing The King is a fan of his work.
Must feel even better to know a future Hall of Fame point guard is on his side too.
"I like watching Philly," Nash said. "[McConnell's] kind of overmatched in a lot of ways but he's smart, he's tough and he plays. He's a pure point guard and there's still tons of value in that."
